Tag Archives: Halloween

Gillian got to the desk just as the final strokes were typed onto the yellowing parchment…

“Up the stairs, and to the right… the tutu hides a gruesome sight.”

She found it hard to believe a tutu could hide anything gruesome. When she was a little girl, she dreamed of dancing in a ballet, but her father wouldn’t hear of it. He made it very clear that his daughters would have no part in any activity that encouraged them to dance. When they visited museums she would gaze at paintings of dancers as though she were lovestruck. Even now that she was an adult, nothing could make her feel quite as giddy as her annual trip to see The Nutcracker in December.

By now, it was clear that there was no turning back. While this cottage was certainly creepy enough to hide a bent and broken old witch covered with warts, she was hopeful that she would find something a little less predictable…Gillian decided she couldn’t feel comfortable staying in the cottage without knowing what the tutu mentioned by the ghost-writer was hiding. She found a candle on a table near the fireplace, and used matches she found in a drawer to light it. The candle created enough light to help her breathe a little easier, and she set off down the hall to the staircase.

Every step on the staircase seemed to have a voice of its own crying out warnings – squeaks and creaks, groans and moans – until she reached the landing. “Up the stairs and to the right…” she whispered under her breath, hoping no one whispered back. She crept slowly down the hall, looking right and left only long enough to notice the doors to each room were securely shut. She decided it was probably for the best, since she wasn’t sure she wanted to see what was on the other side of them just yet.

Then she saw it; at the end of the hall was a large painting in a gilt frame featuring the beautiful ballerinas she idolized as a girl. She was struck by a sudden memory of a gift she received from her grandmother when she was very young… a locket on a chain, engraved with the image of a dancing girl in a tutu. Her father never let her wear the locket, and over the years she’d forgotten all about it.

But there, shining in the soft glow of her candle on a table beneath the painting, was her locket. There was nothing gruesome about it. In fact, it was lovely. As she picked up the pendant, she noticed the envelope on the table next to it… It was inscribed with her name. Gillian L. Rutledge. But the address was that of the cottage.

She reached out to touch the envelope with a shaking hand and took a deep breath.

The next chapter will be revealed tomorrow on Lucky Mama… follow along, if you dare!

I’ve decided that some people are just not really getting the whole idea of Halloween. Or at least, MY idea of what Halloween is or should be. And, since I’m the one writing, it’s my idea that counts here.

Yesterday I had to run to Walmart to pick up some candles for the luminaries I was making out of vintage jars, and was amazed at the number of people crammed into the Halloween aisle there. I’m sure thrift stores were also being slammed… people just wait until the very last minute to pull something together. It seems that there is no embracing of the holiday as a thing to be enjoyed for weeks anymore. The desperation set in, and the rush was on to get the kids done up in something acceptable to send them out to bring candy home for the parents.

That’s right. For the parents. You know as well as I do that when the kids are in bed, mom and dad pull out the candy that they are rationing to their children, and hog a few miniature Twix bars and packages of Skittles.

We live in what I would call a safe neighborhood. Most of the people on our block have been here a while – lots of people in their 60’s and 70’s. The streets are very wide, there’s not a lot of through traffic… we also don’t have a ton of youger kids here. However, on Halloween night the neighborhoods surrounding ours – mostly to the South – send reconnaisance missions down our street and stock up on several weeks’ worth of candy per family. They come by car, van, truck… dad or mom is driving, and follows them down the street with the motor running as a cluster of kids goes from house to house begging for sweets.

Now, I’m all about going to other neighborhoods if yours is not safe, or if there are just hardly any houses around yours. When my girls were small we lived out of town a few miles, and we had one neighbor – my grandmother. We would go to her house to show off our costumes and get pictures made, then we’d head into town to one of the neighborhoods where “coutry kids” would go to have an actual trick-or-treat experience.

But here’s what’s different: I would actually WALK with my children. I didn’t shuttle them from block to block, following them around in my car. I parked. I dressed up even! Halloween was not about taking the kids out to score a bunch of free candy, it was about being creative, giggling and enjoying the compliments of the folks who thought my kids’ costumes were cute, and enjoying my kids’ enjoyment. Just driving around dumping kids off seems a bit like pandering to me. Why not just drop them and tell them you’ll meet them a few streets over in an hour? Most of these kids were old enough to walk alone. Obviously I wouldn’t suggest telling your 4 or 6 year old you’ll see them in an hour.

The prize last night went to the couple who were not dressed up, and were pushing a stroller with a BABY in it from house to house. Seriously. They dressed up their baby, and were taking it around to get candy. Who, exactly, was going to eat that candy?? My girlfriend, Katy, and I speculated that if they came to our house we might not tell them to bug off, but we might give them an apple instead of candy. Or a piece of cheese. Something far less “fun”. So ridiculous.